I think people around here were hesitant to admit that the D was still a major issue considering the great start the group had. There had to be a target for complaints and it fell on Varly.

People have come around recently and have realized the D is still pretty ****.

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I disagree. The D played well at the beginning of the season and strictly looking at the personal it shouldn't be the currently maybe worst defense (defensively, offensively it's not looking too bad although I don't know what the stats say) in the league.
Right now the defense plays like trash which makes the goalies's job extremely difficult but in the first part of the season the opposite was the case.

I am one of the people who've criticized Grubauer even in the games the Avs won with him. And I admit I'm probably a bit more harsh when it comes to him than when I'm talking about Varly. There are two reasons therefor: 1. Varly has done a lot to earn my trust. Grubauer has done nothing because he wasn't on the team before this season. 2. Grubauer has almost never really played well in an Avs jersey. His rebound control is terrible even compared to Varly, his tracking leaves a lot to desire and once he allows a bad goal there's a good chance he gets thrown off his game by it. He has made terrible and sometimes ridiculous mistakes even in games the team won.
So why would I want him on this team? What has he done to earn trust? Play well in one season for the Stanley Cup champion although his weaknesses became obvious again in the playoffs of the very same season? Stats never tell the whole story and this is especially true when it comes to goaltending. Grubauer is not good enough.

Varly isn't the answer either. Francouz seems to be a bit slow moving laterally (I need to watch much more of him before I know what to think about him), so he may not be the answer as well. The situation is problematic. Blaming everything on the D will lead to a rude awakening.
At the same time the D needs to play much better and smarter defensively.

I really don't see why discuss who gets more hate. Both are vilified when they play poorly. Hell, people whined about Grubauer even after those 40 save performances because "he didn't look right".

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I think you're thinking of another game. I just searched each page of the GDT's for the word "gru" (didn't take that long) and all I saw were compliments and a few negative comments in the Vegas thread about past games from Grubauer.

I think you're thinking of another game. I just searched each page of the GDT's for the word "gru" (didn't take that long) and all I saw were compliments and a few negative comments in the Vegas thread about past games from Grubauer.